(Newser)
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John McCain isn’t stoking racism against Barack Obama. If anything, writes Jonah Goldberg in the LA Times, McCain is going easy on the Democrat for fear of appearing racist. When the GOP paints Obama as “different” or Sarah Palin says he doesn’t see America “the way you and I see America,” they’re using the same strategies they have for years—against white candidates.

Obama has been asking for all the hits he’s taken. He “touts his global appeal,” but calling him cosmopolitan is off-limits? By this unfair standard, the GOP campaigns against white guys Michael Dukakis and Al Gore were Klan rallies. "If anything," Goldberg writes, "by not attacking Obama's ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and other politically unsavory nonwhite associates, McCain is self-censoring for fear of seeming racist."